Dr Petra Butler is the Director of the Institute of Small and Micro States (ISMS).
ISMS’ aim is inter alia to provide independent expert advice, especially in the area of
law reform and the placement of (regional) experts. One of the signature events is the
yearly Small States conference, co-organised with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), which discusses
issues relevant for small states. Petra is also a professor at Victoria University of Wellington. She specialises in domestic and international human rights, public and private comparative law, and international commercial law with an emphasis on international commercial contracts and international dispute resolution. She has published extensively in those areas and is invited regularly to speak at conferences, workshops and seminars. Petra has particular expertise in law reform, including leading and has most recently lead the Commonwealth Secretariat study into judicial diversity in small Commonwealth states and into international commercial arbitration in the Commonwealth. Petra is a fully qualified German and New Zealand lawyer. She is admitted as a barrister to the High Court of New Zealand and regularly advises private and public clients in her areas of expertise.